The instructions given at /wiki/Migrate_Windows for unsupported migration of a Windows host to Virtualbox handle the general case of virtualizing the Windows installation on a different machine.
However, it is not clear to me how these instructions change if you are migrating a host Windows OS into a Virtualbox on a different operating system on the same hardware. How does this process work if you want to boot up that Windows session from Linux operating on either a different partition of the same hard disk, or a different hard disk, but with all the other hardware being identical?
Migrate Windows host to Virtualbox on the same hardware
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BillG
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Re: Migrate Windows host to Virtualbox on the same hardware
The OS and the physical hardware on the PC which is hosting the vm is not really important. All of the "hardware" of a vm is emulated and is unlikely to match the hardware of the host machine anyway. Only the CPU is not emulated.
The usual method now to convert a physical machine running Windows to a corresponding vm (usually abbreviated to P2V) is to convert the physical hard drive to a virtual hard drive and create a new vm using this virtual disk. There is a good chance that the resulting vm will boot. If it does, Windows Update will take care of the device drivers. The best way to create the virtual disk is to run the Sysinternals utility disk2vhd in the physical machine.
It is unlikely that the vm will activate, because of the "hardware" changes.
What OS is running on the physical machine you wish to convert? I had no problems converting a Windows 7 physical machine to a vm using this method.
The usual method now to convert a physical machine running Windows to a corresponding vm (usually abbreviated to P2V) is to convert the physical hard drive to a virtual hard drive and create a new vm using this virtual disk. There is a good chance that the resulting vm will boot. If it does, Windows Update will take care of the device drivers. The best way to create the virtual disk is to run the Sysinternals utility disk2vhd in the physical machine.
It is unlikely that the vm will activate, because of the "hardware" changes.
What OS is running on the physical machine you wish to convert? I had no problems converting a Windows 7 physical machine to a vm using this method.
Bill
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mpack
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Re: Migrate Windows host to Virtualbox on the same hardware
Beep. Assumes facts not in evidence.cecoppola wrote:but with all the other hardware being identical?
Hardware is physical. It doesn't get copied when you copy the contents of a disk. Hardware on a new PC does not morph itself to the expectations of the disk image, and that is the case for VMs as with any other PC.
So the "hardware" of the VM will be different, and hosting the VM on the same PC that was imaged is not a special case. Except of course for the CPU, that will remain identical, albeit with not as many cores as it had before.